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Louis Armstrong/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim is in a room with a picture of Louis Armstrong on the wall. Moby walks up to him carrying a trumpet. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Hey, it's dad's old trumpet. Moby holds it up and points to a valve on the trumpet. MOBY: Beep? TIM: That's the spit valve. Moby presses it and out comes a lot of liquid. Moby's hand is drenched and he looks unhappy. MOBY: Beep. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what's so great about Louis Armstrong? From, Roger. Louis Armstrong was probably the most popular and influential jazz musician in history. An image shows Louis Armstrong playing a trumpet. TIM: He was the first jazz superstar, helping it grow from a local style of dance music to a respected art form played by musicians all over the world. An animation shows musical notes, titles in different languages: the names Round Midnight and Le Jazz Club, and silhouettes of instruments moving across the screen. TIM: Louis Daniel Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4th, 1901. A map of the United States shows New Orleans, Louisiana. TIM: He grew up in a poor neighborhood, where he sang on the street for pennies. An image shows Louis Armstrong as a boy singing on the street. His hat is on the ground next to him to hold pennies from people passing by. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, his father abandoned the family when Louis was a baby, and then his mom left him with his grandmother. Without much adult guidance, he got into his share of trouble with the police. An image shows Louis as a boy being grabbed by a police officer. TIM: But it was in a juvenile detention center that young Louis Armstrong learned to play the cornet, a brass instrument similar to the trumpet. An image shows a cornet next to a trumpet. TIM: By the age of 18, his musical talent and constant practice landed him a job in Kid Ory's band. It was considered the best hot jazz group in New Orleans. An image shows the jazz quartet, Kid Ory's Original Creole Jazz-Band. Louis Armstrong is shown playing the trumpet on stage with the band. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Hot jazz was an early form of jazz that emphasized improvisation. Each musician in the band would play his own variation on the melody. An image shows each player in the jazz quartet. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, it can sound pretty chaotic, but the best hot jazz musicians would weave their sounds together and create music that was both fun and original. The image of the four musicians tilts back and forth. TIM: Louis was a master of improvisation, and soon became popular enough to strike out on his own. He moved to Chicago, where he made records with his own bands, the Hot Five, and later, the Hot Seven. A map connects New Orleans to Chicago with a dotted line. Pop-up images show a jazz quintet and a septet. TIM: On these famous recordings, Armstrong introduced the solo to jazz. During a solo, one musician improvises while the rest of the band stays silent or plays quietly in the background. Louis's recordings with the Hot Five and Hot Seven changed jazz forever, the solo soon became the centerpiece of all major styles of jazz music. An image shows Armstrong playing a trumpet. It expands to show the other band members quietly playing a piano, a guitar, and a clarinet. TIM: Louis's records were huge hits, establishing him as an international star, and introducing jazz to the world. An image shows a Spanish language newspaper named El Cruzado. The front page shows a picture of Armstrong and an article about hot jazz. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh no, he didn't just play the trumpet. Armstrong pretty much invented jazz singing, too! An image shows Armstrong singing. TIM: His voice was gravelly, but he played with the rhythm and melody of lyrics just like they were notes from a trumpet. He also popularized scatting, the singing of nonsense sounds instead of actual words. Moby nudges Tim's arm. TIM: What? Ah, all right. Scoobidy-wop, de-bop de-bop. Moby laughs. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Ahem. Anyway, over the years, Armstrong's celebrity just kept growing: he appeared in Hollywood movies, had his own radio show, and was even sent on a government-sponsored goodwill tour of the world. An image shows Armstrong in a movie, a radio playing music, and a globe. TIM: People started calling him Ambassador Satch after that. An image shows a newspaper called The Daily Paper, dated November 18, 1960. The headline reads, Ambassador Satch Tours West Africa, and there is a picture of Armstrong. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well his nickname was Satchmo, short for satchel mouth, because he had such a big mouth. The world came to love Satchmo as much for his smile and lighthearted personality as his music. He was just a lovable guy. An image shows a close-up of Armstrong playing the trumpet. TIM: And he loved his work: Louis played hundreds of shows a year up until his death in 1971. An image shows an older Louis Armstrong, and the years 1901-1971. Moby holds up the trumpet. MOBY: Beep. Tim takes the trumpet from Moby. TIM: Well, I could. I could give it a shot. Dad showed me some stuff once. Moby's eyes and buttons shatter and smoke rises from them. TIM: Oh, cut that out. You did that on purpose. Moby does not respond. TIM: Mo-Moby? Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Social Studies Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Arts & Music Transcripts